Banff Mountain Film Festival

Monday-Wednesday, Jan. 29-31

Whether you're a couch potato looking to live vicariously through others or an adventurer in your own rite, the Banff Mountain Film Festival is an ideal destination. Based in the mountain town of Banff, Alberta, Canada (from which it gets its name) the annual festival always features an outstanding collection of short films—ranging from three minutes to almost an hour—in which stories of "remote journeys, groundbreaking expeditions and cutting-edge adventures are told through the eyes of adventurers, authors, photographer, and filmmakers from around the globe." This year, the action-packed stories include the tale of a group of French kayakers paddling through Iceland, a pair of travelers attempting to go native in the Amazon and an American skier making a bid at the vertical travel world record.